Irsay disputes report that decision was made on Manning “weeks ago”

Posted by Mike Florio on January 29, 2012, 6:54 AM EDT

AP

Who needs a P.R. department when the boss has a Twitter page?

With Jason La Canfora of NFL Network reporting that the Colts decided to cut quarterback Peyton Manning “weeks ago,” Colts owner Jim Irsay took to Twitter at some point after midnight Sunday to respond.

The first part is a little odd because no one is reporting, or has reported, that Manning has been released. In fact, no current players from teams whose seasons have ended can be released until after the Super Bowl.

The back end or Irsay’s latest tweet invites word parsing as to the question of whether a decision has been reached on Manning’s status. With Irsay saying a decision wasn’t reached weeks ago, it’s possible he’s implicitly conceding that a decision has been reached, but that it didn’t happen “weeks ago.”

Regardless, no statements from the team’s P.R. department nor Twitter entries from Irsay will put the genie back in the bottle regarding Peyton’s status. It will be the dominant story line of the week before the Super Bowl, rivaling the coverage of the game that will be played in seven days and eclipsing any of the feel-good angles emerging from the host city of Indianapolis.

As to La Canfora’s report, and at the risk of violating the unwritten rule that a reporter shouldn’t speculate regarding another reporter’s sources, let’s go ahead and speculate regarding his sources.

“Sources who were involved in the Colts’ G.M. search” quite possibly, if not probably, refers to candidates for the job who interviewed but weren’t hired. And those candidates would know that a decision was made if, during the interview process, Irsay or someone else from the Colts made it clear that the new G.M. won’t be confronted with that decision as his first order of business.

It’s not unreasonable that such a statement would be made, since it would make the job more attractive if the new G.M. doesn’t have the burden of answering the $28 million question.

The candidates who didn’t get the job were Falcons director of player personnel Les Snead, Falcons director of college scouting David Caldwell, Giants director of college scouting Marc Ross, Cowboys assistant director of scouting Tom Ciskowski, Colts director of player personnel Tom Telesco, and Montreal Alouettes G.M. Jim Popp. We’d also heard that former Saints and Dolphins G.M. Randy Mueller was on Irsay’s radar, but it’s not known whether he was interviewed.

I’m sure it an interview question. “What would you do regarding Manning?” Or “if Manning was no longer with the Colts, what would you do with Luck – bring in a very to compete or bring in an experienced back up?” Why wouldn’t a candidate be asked questions like this? It doesn’t me that they have made a decision… They may have, but that doesn’t mean they told candidates. Really JLC??

Colts fans need to face facts. Too often our season ended because the D couldn’t make a stop or an RB couldn’t pick up a yard. Changes to the organization look to create a more balanced team. Weigh that against the same old formula with a 36 y.o. QB with a fragile neck and a 2-14 team around him. Irsay and not Manning is the Colts fan’s only hope. I think he’s moving in the right direction.

paardenoog says:Jan 29, 2012 7:59 AM

A good bussiness man would take the best decision for the future with Luck, and then make a classy move to grant Peyton whatever freedom he wants, can’t give him 28 million. Interesting how emotions with these multi millionaires are played up compared to laying off a single mom.

Is it company policy to post an article about something, then follow it up with another article that disputes it?

mpprice says:Jan 29, 2012 8:12 AM

why is Irsay the bad guy here. He just said that he had no problem or regrets paying Peyton $26 mil. He has also said it’s about his health. pretty sure he knows how much money he has made for the team and in getting a new stadium that brought Indy a super bowl.

Irsay paid Peyton $26M last year & he didn’t take a snap. Sadly, due to his health, the $28M bonus due March 8, the salary cap ramifications, & the fact the Colts are drafting Luck, they have little choice but to cut Peyton.

I don’t know what kind of weed Irsay has been smoking lately, but it’s got him paranoid as hell. Time for some new stuff.

watchfullhose says:Jan 29, 2012 8:20 AM

Mjbulls: Ill give you the fact that Payton made indy relevant.Payton hasn’t made Irsay much of anything directly and he didn’t make the colts an NFL team. NFL teams make a SMALL fraction of their profits from gate receipts. The big $ comes from their tv contract.

If Irsay cares about Peyton Manning the way he says he does, he shouldn’t let him play another down for the Colts. His injury is too risky to allow a husband and father to go out and risk the long term effects of what might happen.

Regarding sources – the Giants director would be brilliant to leak this, it diverts attention from the Giants and the idiots on their defense talking about headhunting.

That being said, I think Irsay stating that he hasn’t been released yet, was in the response to that Peyton will be released. We have seen that he sometimes has a problem getting past and present test right.

Regarding the content, the decision was made a long time ago, as soon as Irsay said he was taking Luck. In the following weeks and months he has starting getting rid of every link to Peyton on the staff. I truly think that Irsay thinks he can pull one over on the Colt fans.

Personally, I think this would’ve been alot better if he just came out and said that unfortunately that it is time to move on. Give Peyton the 28million as a severance package – whether he was released before or after the date. If he really wanted to come out ahead, offer Peyton some front office position. He earned it, like people have been mentioning for some time, Peyton didn’t just change the world for the Colts but for Indy as well. The place is alot better off for Peyton having been there.

As it stands now, no matter what he does, he will come off as the cheap, two-faced, double-dealing owner that the players and the fans think all owners are. Which is a shame as for a long time Irsay seemed to be one of the better ones.

I have a feeling a reporter from the NFL network would triple check his sources and more just to be sure he has the correct information before running it. He then probably would have to clear it with his superior before running with the story.

In other words, Mr. La Canfora is correct and Irsay is pissed that he has a mole in the Colts organization.

yankeemofo says:Jan 29, 2012 8:58 AM

Few, someone disputing something said by the media? Say it ain’t do!
Keep throwing the garbage against the wall, something oughta stick!

packman331 says:Jan 29, 2012 9:09 AM

This drama was brought on by both of them, the contract they negotiated, and leads to an easy business decision. When they negotiated the contract, it had to be obvious that this showdown was coming, when a $28M lump sum was decided upon.
Of course Irsay is not going to hand $28M to Peyton on a hope. You wouldn’t either. Of course, I would not have given Peyton this contract without a physical.
If Peyton wants more time, he can agree to move the date. If he doesn’t— well, he is a businessman and he knows what that will lead to. And he leaves with over $100M of accumulated salary

Just like Robert Irsay back in ’84 assuring the good folks in Baltimore that the rumor he was pulling up stakes and heading out of town were untrue. That was right before the fleet of Mayflower trucks entered the Owings Mills compound in the wee hours of the morning and packed up everything for a quick getaway. Play Action Ownership.

All this rumor stuff is out of hand. The only thing that really matters is whether The Colts know if Peyton Manning will be able to play again, if he can why hand the reigns over to Luck in hopes he is the next Peyton Manning when you still could have Peyton Manning? I think if Manning gets released he is likely done because I think from a financial standpoint Irsay is only cutting Manning if he can’t play anymore. As we saw 1st hand this season Peyton Manning is The Colts. It’s honorable that he had that much respect for Polian but if anything this season proved just how lazy he’d gotten in terms of constructing the pieces around Peyton. It seemed to me as soon as they won The Super Bowl against The Bears Polian checked out, “running game non existent at times? Who cares? we have Peyton Manning.” “Bob Sanders is falling apart? Oh well, Peyton will put up enough points.” Prior to winning Polian just seemed to be more concerned with having playmakers not just around Peyton but on the other side of the field too. The last few years, including the Super Bowl run up to losing to The Saints, it just seemed the recipe was “Peyton Manning + who cares = winning”.

croghan1919 says:Jan 29, 2012 9:57 AM

Yawn!!!
40 days until March 9th.
Can someone nudge me awake then please?
Cripes!!!

Colt fans should be thankful that those in charge had the mental faculties to realize that it was time for Peyton to mosey on weeks ago. The rest of the football world knew the Colts needed to rebuild when they were 0-10. Combine that with Peyton’s age (36), injury (neck), and bonus ($28,000,000) and it become’s painfully obvious to everyone except the most delusional Colt fans that the franchise needs to move on.

Why are so many people oblivious to the fact that all of this was deducible prior to the end of the regular season?

Yes, Peyton has single-handedly made the Colts relevant and has single-handedly made them and Jim Irsay a lot of money. And for his efforts and PERFORMANCE (key word) he was paid very handsomely. In fact Jim Irsay felt so highly of him that he is the highest paid player in the NFL. Over his career he has EARNED and been paid approx. $175,000,000.00. Last year he was paid $28 mil to do nothing. Now, he is injured and can’t play thus he will not be paid. Nothing wrong with it, that’s business. Let’s leave it at that!

Peyton has a bad neck which is a serious condition. He was paid a huge amount of money last year and did not play a down. The Colts are in a position to start a new chapter in their history. They have the number 1 pick with 2 potential franchise QBs in the draft. I don’t blame Irsay for starting over.

Ha. Isn’t a horseshoe a symbol of luck? And isn’t the horseshoe something Irsay’s been harping on about? And isn’t Luck supposed to be the next QB? Looks like an omen to me as far as PM is concerned.

Jesting aside I think that both sides have been at fault somewhere along the line, and the way the wind is blowing these days I reckon that there’s not much left for Peyton to stay for. And that’s IF he can play which is a long shot. I think that both sides should just cut the emotional tension and losses, and go their separate ways as friends. And maybe one day when the time is right, PM will come back for a coaching job.

But it’s time to move on. He and the club had a great run together but it’s all wishful thinking from here on out.

Do you expect anyone sane to believe anything this slob or his slob father ever said? No way. They will grab luck and send Peyton packing just like his drunken father did Johnny Unitas years ago. I hope they lose another 16 in a row.

The smartest thing Irsay can do is to shut up until the Super Bowl is over and cut Manning the very first day that he can. Everybody know that this is going to be the outcome so they might as well get it over with so everybody can move forward. That way the circus will focus attention on Mannings potential landing spots and away from the Colts.

This decision wasn’t made weeks ago. It was made months ago. What we have now is the Manning family starting a media firestorm to take the glare off Eli and the Giants during Super Bowl week. Politicking and media manipulation is what Irsay was referring to earlier, and he is absolutely right. Peyton made a lot of money for nothing this year. It was a gift; a going away present. But now that he knows he is gone he is using Irsay as a prop. It will be ALL MANNINGS ALL THE TIME in Indy this week, just the way Daddy likes it.

There is no pill harder to swallow than watching irsay FINALLY make smart GM and coaching moves, and watch P get ran out of town in the middle of it. Are you telling me that peyton deserved to have a terrible defense every year he has been in the league? Having to score 30 points a game? Which he obviously did. Consider if he was healthy, none of this would be happening. Jim your eyes were FINALLY opened cause of a well timed P Manning injury. Fans have been saying for years, dump the tampa 2, dump caldwell and his staff, dump christenson, and most of all…Polian missed WAY more than he hit…..so for that, thank you. But cut Peyton? Not one single Indy fan is ok with that! Luck may be great….but he is no sure thing. Restructure, 2 yr 20 mil. Put it right on the table, if you can play, play! if you cant, this will be your last season in an Indianapolis uniform. Put an opt out clause in a new 2 yr deal! Please Mr. Irsay, we owe it to P…he is not bigger than the horseshoe, but put your sword away, if he can play. Please try and pair him up with this new defense, and great staff you are putting together